Beach walks north and south of Haifa

Although the daytime temperatures have been rising and we are in the throes of summer with its humid weather, Allan and his good friend Mark have gone on a few of hikes together. One was in the north of Haifa where we live - from Akka to Bahjí - along the beach. The other two were south of Haifa along the beach from Hof HaCarmel towards Atlit. Is there a common theme to these walks? (Hint: Allan loves the beach). One walk towards Atlit was in the early morning (not often that I see the sun rise)
the other was an evening adventure in which Ed joined us.
The Akka to Bahjí walk should have been easy
as it was supposed to be about 7km long and take about 2 hours, allowing for photography.
Fishermen are frequently seen along this coastal line, the storm water outflow pipes being a good spot to cast a line.The elements are very harsh on the brickwork eroding chunks of it.
There are a few coves along the way where (older) Israelis swim.
My guess is that this one will not make the Israeli tourist website:
...and every morning you can find a group of men playing a board game - it looks a bit like backgammon. They ride their bikes about 1-2km from Akka to this great spot.
We also came across this wading bird....
and a couple of pill boxes --- I wonder who shot at who from here?
The "marker" to indicate when we should turn inland to Bahji we thought was obvious – a complex of nine-story buildings. Instead, we missed these buildings and came to a nice spot from where we could see a road that was clearly not the main road from Akka to Bahjí, rather the road north to Nahariya. As can be seen from this map, we went about twice as far as we should have.

Hmmmm....... what to do in this situation? Break for Arabic coffee and cake, was the answer (we do it tough when we walk) and watch a couple of divers snorkel.

This spear fisherman brought a nice fish to shore.
His name was Nir and he asked if we could take his photo - so we got talking – he is a physiotherapy student at Haifa University.

Nice fish.

Other fisherman illegally cruised the coastline.
We headed east and came across a field of thorns and thistles – some taller than Mark, which is not that high :) This bridge is a marvel to modern agriculture – supposedly the farmer had this bridge built

so that he could easily cross the railway line within his field. Not sure what he grows! Above the field a small falcon or kite hovered looking for prey.

The railway line crossed our road back to Bahji - the rail service in Israel is great, except it does not run on Shabbat - Friday evening and Saturday.
The main aqueduct that used to bring water to Akka runs along the road south towards Bahji and used to run right through the Baha'i properties.
Along the the road, as in many places around Israel, beautiful bougainvillea grows wild.
Finally we reached Bahjí and walked around the perimeter, taking a few photographs along the way. Of course Mark’s photos are great and I intersperse them with mine to give the impression that my "point and shoot" camera takes great shots. After I while who can remember who took what? This one is definitely Mark's!

At Bahji the flame trees grow abundantly, but the flowers are richly red for only a short time.

We walked around the arc surrounding the resting place of Baha'u'llah towards the southern entrance of the property and out through the south gate.
The geraniums were still in full bloom despite the early summer heat.

The area behind the Shrine is currently less developed and has some beautiful eucalyptus trees - providing welcome shade to weary hikers.
Of course there are olive tress growing all through the grounds.
After leaving the beautiful Baha'i property we set out for the old city of Akka.

Cactus grows well in this environment and the owners of this one (along the way back to Akka) made sure people do not climb over their fence.

Some old houses - similar to what you see in Jerusalem can be found - along with ultramodern apartments.
This section of the old aqueduct is south of the Baha'i gardens in Akka
Back through the new city of Akka to the old city – we arrived 2 hours later than planned.

* * * * * * *

And now for the walks to Atlit (well more correctly towards Atlit).

Haifa is on the Mediterranean, facing west, and north of Tel Aviv. The train runs from Ben Gurion airport almost due north and along the coastal plain. The beaches are a fine, soft, yellow sand,
and the tides are generally not high. At times the Med is like a mirror, at other times it rages. Earlier this year there were 6m waves off the coast of Spain, but not in Haifa.
The beaches are popular in summer (not that you could tell from this photo), which is most of the year, and have entertainment areas as well as a boardwalk and sun shades. There are a lot of shops and eateries and people of all ages flock to the beach. On Friday and Saturday evenings, literally thousands come to the beach - lots of families - and it is lovely to see; otherwise it is not too crowded.
On two occasions we tried to reach Atlit, which is 10km south of Haifa. Each time we have been thwarted and had to turn back, having reached approximately the same spot. The morning walk became too hot and the evening walk had a time constraint so we had to turn around after approximately 7-8km.

Some nice photos were taken though – perhaps, just perhaps, that added to the time it took to reach our destination!

Awareness of the environment is only slowly developing in Israel – there was a volunteer "clean up of the Sea of Galilee" project last year, which is an encouraging sign. Haifa beaches suffer from debris off ships sailing in the Mediterranean, as well as the beach-goers' thoughtlessness. Some sad examples follow:

Who would bring, let alone leave, a tube of toothpaste on the beach!!!!






Just yesterday, I was walking along the beach with Muna and for the first time saw a group of 4 young men carrying bags of rubbish back to the bins at the area near the cafes. Good on them - I wish I had my camera with me. Another encouraging sign.

July is jellyfish season, and this year they were abundant – we literally saw thousands, many more than previous years, and much earlier than previous years.

Apparently this species did not exist in the Med prior to the opening of the Suez canal – now they have taken over and consume huge amounts of shrimp (prawn) and fish larvae – depleting the fish stocks even further.

They are washed up high onto the beach at high tide.


A week later there was no sign of them!

The beaches around Haifa are long and narrow, but quite thin, and there is rock just underneath so the layer of sand is only 30-50cm in parts.

At times stones and rock break the seemingly endless stretch of sand, but only in a few places.






On the evening walk we experienced the longish twilight at this time of year - 30 minutes instead of 10!

This was as close as we got to our destination. You can see that it is worth trying to reach it - these ruins were once a thriving affluent coastal town.
We stopped at this jellyfish - and decided to photograph it as our marker for how far we reached - and hence try to do better next time. Well it seemed like a good idea at the time.
The sunset was spectacular,




as was the full moon, which illumined the last part of our walk.


Next time, we will take the train to Atlit and walk back to Haifa Hof HaCarmel beach – we need to make it to this ancient coastal city that is now in ruins.